Jane Peterson (1876-1965), American
Oil on board (16.7" x 12.2")
Woman with Umbrella
Price on Request

Jane Peterson (1876-1965)

Born Jennie Christine in Elgin, Illinois, she officially changed her name to Jane Peterson in 1909 after her first success as an artist.  Her family was of humble background but certainly not poverty stricken.  She became famous for a wide range of works from landscapes to still-lives that blend Impressionist and Expressionist movements.  As a woman, her life was much more independent and adventurous than those of most of her contemporaries, and she traveled widely to paint including joining Louis Comfort Tiffany on a continental painting expedition in his private railway car.

Peterson does not belong to any particular school of painting, but combined techniques and styles from a variety of teachers and prevalent styles.  However, many of her early works were strongly Impressionist, much influenced by Joaquin Sorrola y Bastida, a Madrid painter under whose teaching she abandoned dark tonalities for the spontaneous methods of applying paint characteristic of Impressionism.

She studied in Paris and lived around the corner from Gertrude and Leo Stein, who invited Peterson to many of their soirees where she met leading intellectuals including Picasso and Matisse.

By 1916, she was also doing much painting of colorful beach scenes with Maurice Prendergast and went on to paint many landscapes and seascapes.

Her first successful American exhibition was in 1909 at the St. Botolph Club in Boston, and from that time her work was the subject of over 50 one-person shows.

Source: Charlotte Rubinstein American Women Artists